telescope

This Telescope Uses 10 Canon Lenses Worth $100,000

Now here's a neat use of Canon's lenses: the University of Toronto owns one of the smallest professional astronomical telescopes in the world that uses an array of photographic camera lenses instead of a single lens. Called the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, it uses ten ordinary Canon 400mm f/2.8L IS II lenses that cost $9,999 each. That's $100,000 in photo gear.

A Time-Lapse from a Telescope’s Point of View

Since 2012, photographer Kenneth Brandon has regularly ventured into the great outdoors at night to shoot time-lapse photos of the dark sky. He recently began to wonder what a time-lapse would look like from a point-of-view on his telescope rather than through it, so he attached a DSLR to the outside on a recent shoot in Panamint Valley, California. The video above is what resulted.

Trevor Paglen on Photographing Secret Military Sites with a Telescope

PBS series Art in the 21st Century recently released this 6-minute look at the work of photographer Trevor Paglen, a guy who points his camera through astronomy telescopes at secret military sites to photography things that are off limits to the public. As we shared back in 2012, Paglen calls his imagery "Limit Telephotography."

A Close-Up Hubble Photo of the Rare Triple Transit of Jupiter’s Moons

On January 23rd, 2015, there was a rare triple transit of Jupiter's moons, during which observers here on Earth were treated with the sight of three moons crossing the face of the planet at the same time. This event happens only once or twice every ten years.

The Hubble Space Telescope was pointed at Jupiter during the triple transit and captured the beautiful photo above. It shows, from left to right, Europa, Callisto, and Io.

NASA Recreates the Iconic ‘Pillars of Creation’ Hubble Photo 20 Years Later

On April 1st, 1995, the Hubble Telescope captured a photograph that became one of the most iconic space photos ever captured. Titled, "Pillars of Creation," the image shows the gigantic columns of interstellar gas and dust of the Eagle Nebula 6,000 light years away.

Now, 20 years after that image was created, scientists have recreated that image using the same space telescope (shown above).

NASA Packs 17-Ton Telescope in a Boeing 747 to Solve Catch-22 of Astrophotography

NASA is known for using some impressive optics for its telescopes. But with amazing optics come some logistical limitations.

Ground-based lenses used by NASA can be as massive as needed, but are limited due to atmospheric distortion. Those used in space-based telescopes such as Hubble, on the other hand, must be much smaller, capable of being launched into space and fixed on-the-fly. This leaves NASA with a little Catch–22.

A Catch-22 they’ve managed to find an answer to in the form of SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy): a Boeing 747 with a 17-ton telescope packed inside.

Amateur Astronomers Recreate Voyager 1 Time-Lapse of Jupiter 35 Years Later

In 1979, as Voyager 1 made its final approach towards Jupiter, it snapped a series of beautiful black-and-white images of the massive planet that, when converted into a time-lapse, showed the movement of Jupiter's cloud bands for the very first time.

It's iconic footage, astronomically speaking, which is why 7 Swedish amateur astronomers and astrophotographers set out to recreate it using their own ground-based telescopes.

Time-Lapse Captured with Solar Telescope Shows a Sunset in Magnificent Detail

Swedish astrophotographer Göran Strand uploaded a time-lapse to YouTube today that is anything but your run-of-the-mill sunset lapse. For one, he's waited almost a full year to shoot this footage. For another, it was shot using a solar telescope, and so magnificently captures the sun in striking detail as it dips below the silhouette of the foreground landscape.

Two Photos of the Orion Nebula Show Just How Far Photography Has Come

The saying goes, "your cell phone has more computing power than all of NASA in 1969. NASA launched a man to the moon. We launched a bird into pigs."

Thankfully, in addition to launching furious balls of feathers into evil swine, we also use our phones for taking photographs. And just as our phones have more computing power than all of NASA in 1969, our phones also have better imaging capabilities than many of the astrophotography endeavors of the past.

Behold the First Ever Image of a Planet and Its Star Over 63 Light Years Away

Although it might not seem like much, the photo above might just be the most extraordinary image you have ever seen. Not because of crazy high megapixel count or amazing composition or even subject matter -- we've seen images of planets orbiting stars before -- but because it is the first ever image of a planet and its star over 63 light years away.

Spectacular Horsehead Nebula Photograph Almost Good Enough to Rival Hubble

Photography is hardly a cheap hobby to pick up, but even within photography, some branches are more expensive than others. And ranking pretty close to the 'most expensive' side of that line is astrophotography... at least the kind that will yield incredible photos like the one you see here by photographer Mike Hankey.

New Telescope Cam Takes Highest-Ever Resolution Photos of the Night Sky

When it comes to visible light photos of the night sky, Hubble has been king. That's because Earth-bound telescopes -- even those with much higher-quality optical systems than Hubble -- must deal with the blurring effects of our planet's atmosphere.

A newly developed camera called VisAO, however, has done away with that problem, and in the process enabled astronomers to take the highest-resolution visible light photos ever captured of the night sky.

Cardiff Camera

Camera Used For Stargazing Helps Detect Common Form of Sight Loss

Here's yet another example of how technology used in space can help us earthlings in other ways. A partnership between scientists at Cardiff University and the UK Astronomy Technology Center has yielded a prototype device that can help detect Age-Related Macular Degeneration (otherwise known as AMD) -- a common form of sight loss -- using camera technology designed originally for use on space telescopes.

This 870-Megapixel Monster Camera Has 116 Sensors and Weighs 3 Tons

If Optimus Prime ever decided to retire from saving Earth and take up photography as a hobby, this is one camera he might consider using. Called the Hyper Suprime-Cam, it's a 870-megapixel ultra-wide-field camera that stands 3 meters (~10 feet) high and weighs in at 3 tons. The comparison illustration above shows what the camera looks like next to a 5.2-foot-tall girl.

Photographer Captures the ISS Looking Like the USS Enterprise

Dumitrana, Romania-based astrophotographer Maximilian Teodorescu recently got his hands on an 1800mm f/12 Maksutov telescope and decided to put it through its paces this past weekend. He decided to test out the imaging quality by using it to photograph the International Space Station passing in front of the moon in broad daylight. The beautiful photograph above is what he ended up capturing.

Attach Binoculars to your Smartphone for Telephoto Shots with the Snapzoom

Earlier today, brothers-in-law Daniel Fujikake and Mac Nguyen of HI Resolution Enterprises announced a new product for the photography enthusiast community that they're trying to get some help funding. Launched via Kickstarter campaign, the Snapzoom is a universal adapter that can attach a slew of optical scopes (i.e. binoculars, telescopes, etc.) to your smartphone in lieu of a telephoto lens.

Buying Your First Telescope, A Guide for Beginner Astrophotographers

Photography is an expensive hobby as it is, but if you're interested in astrophotography, you're looking at adding at least one more item to your camera bag. Well, actually, it won't fit in your camera bag, because that item is a telescope.

And when it comes to selecting your first astrophotography-worthy telescope, the tips offered in the above video by Mr. Forrest Tanaka are invaluable and very well presented.

Photographer Captures Detailed Photos of the Sun From His Backyard

Alan Friedman of Buffalo, New York is an amateur astrophotography enthusiast who captures amazing photographs of the Sun through a telescope in his backyard. His highly detailed photographs show the sun in ways you never see with your naked eye. Using special filters that allow the photos to be captured without destroying his camera or his eyes, Friedman creates images of our life-giving star that look more like something you might see under a microscope.

The Moon and Venus Captured in a Single Photograph

Behold, a photograph of the moon. Can you see it? No, it's not that tiny bright crescent you see... The moon is that faint giant crescent. That tiny one to its left is Venus. Hungarian astrophotographer Iván Éder captured this beautiful photograph back in 2004 from Budapest, Hungary.

A Glimpse at the World’s Largest Digital Camera, a 570-Megapixel Beast

Back in September, we shared the first photos snapped by the world's largest and most powerful digital camera: the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera located on a mountaintop in Chile. Reuters recently paid a visit to the massive astro-camera and the scientists behind it, and created the short 2-minute piece above that offers a closer look at the unique piece of camera equipment.

This is the Most Zoomed-In Photograph Ever Created by Mankind

What you're looking at is the most zoomed-in photo ever shot by mankind. Titled the eXtreme Deep Field (XDF), it's a followup to the famous Hubble Ultra-Deep Field photo created in the mid-2000s. Scientists combined 10-years-worth of Hubble Space Telescope photos to create this resulting image that shows 5,500 individual galaxies, some of which are one ten-billionth the brightness of what our human eyes can see.

NASA Rocket-Mounted Telescope Snaps Clearest Ever Photos of the Sun’s Corona

Many of the photos we get back from space come either via powerful telescopes in orbit or talented astronauts in the ISS. Another way to explore the cosmos in pictures, however, is to mount a high-powered telescope to a sub-orbital rocket, and fire away. During the trip, the telescope is allotted about 10 minutes to get the photos it's looking for. And lest you think 10 minutes isn't enough, a couple of weeks ago NASA used this exact method to capture the clearest ever images of the Sun's corona.

iPhone Telescope Adapter Lets You Instagram Stars and Microbes Alike

If you've ever found yourself wishing you could take an iPhone picture of the night sky -- or a cool slide under the microscope for that matter -- than your wish could soon become a reality. The startup Arcturus Labs are in the process of funding a new product called Magnifi, an iPhone case/adapter that allows you to attach your phone to a microscope, telescope, binoculars, or any other optical instrument.

55-Hour Exposure of a Tiny Patch of Sky Reveals 200,000 Galaxies

This photo is what you get when you point a massive 4.1 meter telescope (VISTA in Chile) at an unremarkable patch of night sky and capture six thousand separate exposures that provide an effective "shutter speed" of 55 hours. It's an image that contains more than 200,000 individual galaxies, each containing countless stars and planets (to put the image into perspective, the famous Hubble Ultra-Deep Field contains "only" around 10,000 galaxies). And get this: this view only shows a tiny 0.004% of the entire sky!

D-CAN: A Cylindrical Concept Camera

Designer Jean-michel Bonnemoy thinks that traditional camera designs are wrong, and that form factors were driven more by technical necessity (e.g. the need to hold film) than by ergonomics and ease of use. Instead, he proposes that modern digital cameras should be cylindrical and resembling a handheld telescope. A lens cap is built into the front, a viewfinder and LCD screen are built into the back, and the controls are in easy-to-access locations on the side of the camera.

Amateur Astronomer Captures Beautiful Photos of Space from His Front Yard

Reddit user tirceol's father is an amateur astronomer who captures some amazing photographs of space from his front yard by hooking up a camera to his telescope's eyepiece. He uses everything from a webcam to a Meade camera to capture the images, which are sometimes composites created using multiple photos. The above image shows the Andromeda galaxy 2.5 million light years away.

Dude Shoots the Moon with an iPhone 4

Believe it or not, the above photograph was made with an iPhone 4. jurilog created a tiny astrophotography kit using a small telescope you can buy online for ¥9,800 (~$115) and a miniature tripod mount.